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Writers Conference Number Umpteen and One
This one was The 2025 Boston Writing Workshop. It was billed as a “How to Get Published” writing event, with the opportunity to pitch a...
1 day ago2 min read
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Ninjitsu
I just got my first subscriber. Thing is, I don’t even have a newsletter yet. I guess it’s about time I pulled one together. There’s a...
Mar 141 min read
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Fourteen Hundred Words of Garbage
And that’s a GOOD thing. I was feeling completely stuck for the last week. I had my outline, and I had a dozen or so scenes that knocked...
Feb 281 min read
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Writing Fiction In a Time Like This
A Frenchman sheds tears of patriotic grief as flags of his country's lost regiments are exiled to Africa, 1940. ...
Feb 52 min read
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Interrogating My Characters
Once month I attend a generative “Community Writing” drop in group run by the Pioneer Valley Writers Workshop . Sometimes the prompts...
Dec 7, 20244 min read
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I've gone live!
Image made with Adobe Firefly (not by me, and I'm not thrilled with it, honestly). But I'm ecstatic that my first-ever sold-for-money...
Aug 23, 20241 min read
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Not your typical writing process
The photo looks like a writer happily on vacation, working on his book while sitting by the lake on a breezy summer afternoon. Actually...
Aug 21, 20242 min read
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Thinking Like an Engineer
I’ve always been a “pantser,” one of those authors who write by the seat of their pants. I would create characters and then sit back and...
Jul 29, 20242 min read
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Rubbing Shoulders with Giants
Just two days after selling my first story, I was a “featured writer” at a public reading sponsored by the Pioneer Valley Writers...
Apr 29, 20241 min read
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Score!
Checking my email last night before bed, I see: We’re excited to inform you that your flash fiction story "Invocation" has been accepted...
Apr 20, 20241 min read
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My Umpteenth Writers' Conference
Umpteen, of course, is a precise number about halfway between a bunch and a bazillion. This was the Write Angles conference put on by...
Apr 15, 20242 min read
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Refuse to Be Done
That’s the name of one of the many books on my shelf full of advice on how to write a novel. It could also be my personal motto. Around...
Apr 2, 20243 min read
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An Unfortunate Encounter With a Table Saw
I feel kind of vulnerable sharing this, but I think it's an important cautionary tale. It’s been three weeks now, and I’m finally ready...
Mar 19, 20235 min read
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Spinning Plates
There's an act you may have seen, where someone balances a lot of spinning plates on top of poles. They'll stay there as long as they're...
Nov 29, 20221 min read
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Reading History With a Teaspoon
Imagine there’s an ice cream factory. A really big one. Maybe it fills an entire city block. You’re allowed to go in and sample all the...
Dec 6, 20211 min read
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Going Live!
I spent weeks fussing with a green screen for my videos before realizing that my roll-top desk is prettier than the backgrounds I was...
Jul 16, 20211 min read
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Coming Up For Air
My wife and I used to describe the end of August as being like “packing for a transarctic submarine voyage” because of the way the school...
Jun 14, 20211 min read
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Once More Unto the Breach
Two years ago, a Writers’ Digest conference in New York City gave me a view into what the life of a professional writer’s life is like. I...
Oct 29, 20192 min read
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Gold Stars
This past summer, at my very first writers conference, I had an agent ask me, “If this is your first conference, how did you learn to...
Nov 6, 20173 min read
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Teacher and Writer
Two months have passed since I got back from the Writer’s Digest Conference in New York, and I feel like I’ve been swimming underwater...
Oct 29, 20172 min read
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